Getting a live steam locomotive

My First loco was probably like many others - a Mamod.

But with a diffrence...It was a stationary steam engine with added Meccano parts on a simple chassis and belt driven transmission to one axle. It ran demented on a wobbly straight section of track made from old brass curtain rail. The track gauge was much larger than 45mm.
I was about 12 years old at the time. I took it to school for a Physics lesson and set fire to the carpet tiles in the classroom after it jetisoned a piece of burning tablet.

I still have the boiler!

Mine was a Mamod Steam Roller, I can remember my Dad built a Meccano windmill for it to drive. It kept blowing the safety valve out completely.Years later I tried it on 5* as I had no meth, dunno where it ended up.

As a 50th my wife got me a Hornby LS Mallard, they are amazing bits of kit but totally uncontrollable - it was repaired twice in the first year. Far too expensive and complicated to drive, incompatible power supply, but a joy to see it in action.

At 51 wifey got me a Mercer Traction Engine kit, that was great fun to build/paint but it lacks "je ne sais quois". actually cost more than an Edrig at the time

Next (52nd) came Edrig - it's in bits now , had a few good times with that.

Amazing thing is that 3 years ago I had no idea that LS was available at reasonable cost and had never heard of "G" Scales.

My one and only live steamer is a Pearse Europa. I looked at all sorts before I bought it back in 1998. Remember that at this point there was no Cheddar or Accucraft and limited internet. I decided that I wanted something fairly detailed and Austro-Germanic. Didn't know about Regner, Reppingen etc at the time, and my interests were less clearly defined - or perhaps differently defined - than they are now. If I were buying now I'd probably buy an Austrian or German outline Regner or similar. Perhaps I should have bought something cheap and simple first and I would have learnt more along the way. With the phenomenal growth of the internet learning via forums such as this would make good sense. I think this would be true now whether one buys something simple and grows the knowledge or something complex and uses the internet to share experience. In the photo below it is on the right alongside a visiting Lady Anne, which Ian built from a kit just to gain that experience - experience which I admit that I do not have.

From H&DLR public album photos

The loco is fantastic - I cannot praise its reliability highly enough. Ian Pearse has long since dimissed me as a pure cheque book modeller, which is a little harsh, but I'm no steam engineer, I do admit. This loco runs out of the box, first time, every time, even after 18 months stored in my mother-in-law's attic. This is one reason why I'm not an experienced steamologist - I've not needed to be! Though I do dread anything going seriously wrong with it...

The loco is not as clean as it might be, it splutters steam oil when it first starts off and the General Manager doesn't clean up after himself as well as he should, but once going it is an absolute delight. In practice it only gets used a few times per year but always gives pleasure.

From H&DLR public album photos

Mine is the one I got just three weeks ago - Edrig - subject of several seperate posts here!

I too was well into Meccano as a kid, even built up to a number 9 set over a number of birthdays. Always lusted after the No 10 set in the wooden box but way beyond my means. I was aware of the Mammod stationary engine (it featured in Meccano magazine every month) but for some reason never really wanted one - sacrilege, I was into electric motors and my Hornby train set!

To be honest until I met Carl at the Paris Expo last November I had no idea that such exquisite models existed at G Scale.

However G Scale live steam seems to be pulling together a number of my previous interests - brass scratchbuilding from O gauge, railways in the garden; radio control (from my model aeroplane days).

I realise that I'm still in the "honeymoon" period. Will it last?

B

GWhizz wrote:

I realise that I'm still in the "honeymoon" period. Will it last?

B

Yes it will. In fact it can get very adulterous (Bruce excepted). You'll probably end up with several on the go at the same time.

my first live steamer was a stationary engine i built at school for my o levels .

it spent many years on display at the school

looks a bit grubby now - nothing a bit of brasso wont sort out

and another engine i did about 10 yr ago - there are others but i will leave it at that

at the mo . i have a manual edrige

Ouch !!
Unlucky newbie

pjti wrote:

Ouch !!
Unlucky newbie

Same thing nearly happened to me!

I've posted a sympathetic message on that GSM thread.

B

Hello all,
My first live steam engine was a Mamod stationary engine. Not the one with the engine atop the boiler but alongside. Of course, I connected far to many things to drive and it slowed to a crawl. So I investigated a way of getting treater efficiency by cutting a hole in the red base under the boiler and sticking it over a burner on the stove. Imagine my mothers surprise when she entered the kitchen to find a 14 year old boy grinning at the flailing machine thrashing its guts out. Amazingly, She allowed my cousin to give me a traction engine from the same manufacturer.....this I nearly set the house on fire with.

I think I'll stick to electricity for propulsion.